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1
Hutchings, Michael R., Spiridoula Athanasiadou, Ilias Kyriazakis, and Iain J. Gordon. "Can animals use foraging behaviour to combat parasites?" Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 62, no. 2 (May 2003): 361–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/pns2003243.
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Host-parasite interactions are often seen as an arms race, with parasites attempting to overcome host resistance to infection. Herbivory is a common route of transmission of parasites that represents the most pervasive challenge to mammalian growth and reproduction. The present paper reviews the foraging skills of mammalian herbivores in relation to their ability to exploit plant properties to combat parasites. The starting point is that foraging behaviour may ameliorate the impact of parasitism in three ways; hosts could: (1) avoid foraging in areas contaminated with parasites; (2) select diets which increase their resistance to parasites; (3) select for foods containing anti-parasitic properties (self-medication). Details are given of the pre-requisite skills needed by herbivores if they are to combat parasitism via behaviour, i.e. herbivores are able to: (a) determine their parasitic state and alter their behaviour in relation to that state (behaviours 1, 2 and 3); (b) determine the environmental distribution of parasites (behaviour 1); (c) distinguish plant species or plant parts that increase their resistance to parasites (behaviour 2) or have anti-parasitic properties (behaviour 3). Mammalian herbivores cannot detect the presence of the parasites themselves and must rely on cues such as faeces. Despite the use of these cues contacting parasites may be inevitable and so mechanisms to combat parasitism are necessary. Mammalian herbivores have the foraging skills needed to exploit the heterogeneous distributions of nutrients and parasites in complex foraging environments in order to avoid, and increase their resistance to, parasites. Current evidence for the use of plant secondary metabolites (PSM) by herbivores for self-medication purposes remains equivocal. PSM have both positive (anti-parasitic) and negative (toxic) effects on herbivores. Here details are given of an experimental approach using tri-trophic (plant-herbivore-parasite) interactions that could be used to demonstrate self-medication in animals. There is strong evidence suggesting that herbivore hosts have developed the foraging skills needed to take advantage of plant properties to combat parasites and thus use behaviour as a weapon in the host-parasite arms race.
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Reynolds, A. M. "On the intermittent behaviour of foraging animals." Europhysics Letters (EPL) 75, no. 4 (August 2006): 517–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2006-10157-x.
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Lihoreau, Mathieu, Michael A. Charleston, Alistair M. Senior, Fiona J. Clissold, David Raubenheimer, Stephen J. Simpson, and Jerome Buhl. "Collective foraging in spatially complex nutritional environments." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 372, no. 1727 (July 3, 2017): 20160238. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0238.
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Nutrition impinges on virtually all aspects of an animal's life, including social interactions. Recent advances in nutritional ecology show how social animals often trade-off individual nutrition and group cohesion when foraging in simplified experimental environments. Here, we explore how the spatial structure of the nutritional landscape influences these complex collective foraging dynamics in ecologically realistic environments. We introduce an individual-based model integrating key concepts of nutritional geometry, collective animal behaviour and spatial ecology to study the nutritional behaviour of animal groups in large heterogeneous environments containing foods with different abundance, patchiness and nutritional composition. Simulations show that the spatial distribution of foods constrains the ability of individuals to balance their nutrient intake, the lowest performance being attained in environments with small isolated patches of nutritionally complementary foods. Social interactions improve individual regulatory performances when food is scarce and clumpy, but not when it is abundant and scattered, suggesting that collective foraging is favoured in some environments only. These social effects are further amplified if foragers adopt flexible search strategies based on their individual nutritional state. Our model provides a conceptual and predictive framework for developing new empirically testable hypotheses in the emerging field of social nutrition. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals’.
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Lian, Xinming, Tongzuo Zhang, Yifan Cao, Jianping Su, and Simon Thirgood. "Road proximity and traffic flow perceived as potential predation risks: evidence from the Tibetan antelope in the Kekexili National Nature Reserve, China." Wildlife Research 38, no. 2 (2011): 141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/wr10158.
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Context The risk-disturbance hypothesis predicts that animals exhibit risk-avoidance behaviours when exposed to human disturbance because they perceive the disturbance as a predatory threat. Aims This study aimed to examine whether Tibetan antelopes (Pantholops hodgsoni) exhibit risk-avoidance behaviour with proximity to a major highway and with increasing traffic flow consistent with the risk-disturbance hypothesis. Methods Focal-animal sampling was used to observe the behaviour of Tibetan antelopes. The behaviours were categorised as foraging, vigilance, resting, moving, or other. The time, frequency, and duration of foraging and vigilance were calculated. Key results As distance from the road increased, time spent foraging and foraging duration increased while foraging frequency, time spent being vigilant and vigilance frequency decreased, indicating that there is a risk perception associated with roads. Tibetan antelopes presented more risk-avoidance behaviours during high-traffic periods compared with low-traffic periods. Conclusions Tibetan antelopes exhibited risk-avoidance behaviour towards roads that varied with proximity and traffic levels, which is consistent with the risk-disturbance hypothesis. Implications The consequences of risk-avoidance behaviour should be reflected in wildlife management by considering human disturbance and road design.
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Freeman, Robin, Ben Dean, Holly Kirk, Kerry Leonard, Richard A. Phillips, Chris M. Perrins, and Tim Guilford. "Predictive ethoinformatics reveals the complex migratory behaviour of a pelagic seabird, the Manx Shearwater." Journal of The Royal Society Interface 10, no. 84 (July 6, 2013): 20130279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2013.0279.
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Understanding the behaviour of animals in the wild is fundamental to conservation efforts. Advances in bio-logging technologies have offered insights into the behaviour of animals during foraging, migration and social interaction. However, broader application of these systems has been limited by device mass, cost and longevity. Here, we use information from multiple logger types to predict individual behaviour in a highly pelagic, migratory seabird, the Manx Shearwater ( Puffinus puffinus ). Using behavioural states resolved from GPS tracking of foraging during the breeding season, we demonstrate that individual behaviours can be accurately predicted during multi-year migrations from low cost, lightweight, salt-water immersion devices. This reveals a complex pattern of migratory stopovers: some involving high proportions of foraging, and others of rest behaviour. We use this technique to examine three consecutive years of global migrations, revealing the prominence of foraging behaviour during migration and the importance of highly productive waters during migratory stopover.
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Avery, R. A., and D. H. Bond. "Environmental constraints on lizard foraging behaviour." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 18, no. 3-4 (October 1987): 384–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0168-1591(87)90235-8.
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Houston, Alasdair I. "Evolutionary models of metabolism, behaviour and personality." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365, no. 1560 (December 27, 2010): 3969–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0161.
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I explore the relationship between metabolism and personality by establishing how selection acts on metabolic rate and risk-taking in the context of a trade-off between energy and predation. Using a simple time budget model, I show that a high resting metabolic rate is not necessarily associated with a high daily energy expenditure. The metabolic rate that minimizes the time spent foraging does not maximize the net gain rate while foraging, and it is not always advantageous for animals to have a higher metabolic rate when food availability is high. A model based on minimizing the ratio of mortality rate to net gain rate is used to determine how a willingness to take risks should be correlated with metabolic rate. My results establish that it is not always advantageous for animals to take greater risks when metabolic rate is high. When foraging intensity and metabolic rate coevolve, I show that in a particular case different combinations of foraging intensity and metabolic rate can have equal fitness.
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Lazo, Alfonso, and Ramón C. Soriguer. "Size-biased foraging behaviour in feral cattle." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 36, no. 2-3 (April 1993): 99–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0168-1591(93)90002-7.
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Rosen, David A. S., Arliss J. Winship, and Lisa A. Hoopes. "Thermal and digestive constraints to foraging behaviour in marine mammals." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 362, no. 1487 (May 2007): 2151–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2108.
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While foraging models of terrestrial mammals are concerned primarily with optimizing time/energy budgets, models of foraging behaviour in marine mammals have been primarily concerned with physiological constraints. This has historically centred on calculations of aerobic dive limits. However, other physiological limits are key to forming foraging behaviour, including digestive limitations to food intake and thermoregulation. The ability of an animal to consume sufficient prey to meet its energy requirements is partly determined by its ability to acquire prey (limited by available foraging time, diving capabilities and thermoregulatory costs) and process that prey (limited by maximum digestion capacity and the time devoted to digestion). Failure to consume sufficient prey will have feedback effects on foraging, thermoregulation and digestive capacity through several interacting avenues. Energy deficits will be met through catabolism of tissues, principally the hypodermal lipid layer. Depletion of this blubber layer can affect both buoyancy and gait, increasing the costs and decreasing the efficiency of subsequent foraging attempts. Depletion of the insulative blubber layer may also increase thermoregulatory costs, which will decrease the foraging abilities through higher metabolic overheads. Thus, an energy deficit may lead to a downward spiral of increased tissue catabolism to pay for increased energy costs. Conversely, the heat generated through digestion and foraging activity may help to offset thermoregulatory costs. Finally, the circulatory demands of diving, thermoregulation and digestion may be mutually incompatible. This may force animals to alter time budgets to balance these exclusive demands. Analysis of these interacting processes will lead to a greater understanding of the physiological constraints within which the foraging behaviour must operate.
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Kölzsch, Andrea, Adriana Alzate, Frederic Bartumeus, Monique de Jager, Ellen J. Weerman, Geerten M. Hengeveld, Marc Naguib, Bart A. Nolet, and Johan van de Koppel. "Experimental evidence for inherent Lévy search behaviour in foraging animals." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282, no. 1807 (May 22, 2015): 20150424. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.0424.
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Recently, Lévy walks have been put forward as a new paradigm for animal search and many cases have been made for its presence in nature. However, it remains debated whether Lévy walks are an inherent behavioural strategy or emerge from the animal reacting to its habitat. Here, we demonstrate signatures of Lévy behaviour in the search movement of mud snails ( Hydrobia ulvae ) based on a novel, direct assessment of movement properties in an experimental set-up using different food distributions. Our experimental data uncovered clusters of small movement steps alternating with long moves independent of food encounter and landscape complexity. Moreover, size distributions of these clusters followed truncated power laws. These two findings are characteristic signatures of mechanisms underlying inherent Lévy-like movement. Thus, our study provides clear experimental evidence that such multi-scale movement is an inherent behaviour rather than resulting from the animal interacting with its environment.
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Bénichou, O., M. Coppey, M. Moreau, P. H. Suet, and R. Voituriez. "A stochastic theory for the intermittent behaviour of foraging animals." Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 356, no. 1 (October 2005): 151–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2005.05.028.
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Provenza, Frederick D., Juan J. Villalba, Carl D. Cheney, and Scott J. Werner. "Self-organization of foraging behaviour: From simplicity to complexity without goals." Nutrition Research Reviews 11, no. 2 (December 1998): 199–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/nrr19980015.
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AbstractA herbivore faces challenges while foraging—ongoing changes in its physiological condition along with variation in the nutrient and toxin concentrations of foods, spatially and temporally—that make selecting a nutritious diet a vital affair. Foraging behaviours arise from simple rules that operate across levels of resolution from cells and organs to individuals and their interactions with social and physical environments. At all these levels, behaviour is a function of its consequences: a behaviour operating on the environment to induce changes is itself changed by those events. Thus, behaviour emerges from its own functioning—behaviour self-organizes-not from that of its surroundings. This ostensible autonomy notwith-standing, no self-organizing system (cell, organ, or individual) is independent of its environs because existence consists of an ongoing exchange of energy and matter. According to this view, the notion of cause and effect is replaced with functional relationships between behaviours and environmental consequences. Changes in physical environments alter the distribution, abundance, nutritional, and toxicological characteristics of plants, which affect food preference. Social interactions early in life influence behaviour in various ways: animals prefer familiar foods and environments, and they prefer to be with companions. Animals in unfamiliar environments often walk farther, ingest less food, and suffer more from malnutrition and toxicity than animals in familiar environments. An individual's food preferences—and its ability to discriminate familiar from novel foods—arise from the functional integration of sensory (smell, taste, texture) and postingestive (effects of nutrients and toxins on chemo-, osmo-, and mechano-receptors) effects. The ability to discriminate among foods is critical for survival: all problems with poisonous plants are due to an inability to discriminate or a lack of alternatives. Animals eat a variety of foods as a result of nearing or exceeding tolerance limits for sensory and postingestive effects unique to each food. After eating any food too frequently or excessively, the likelihood increases that animals will eat alternative foods owing to exceeding sensory-, nutrient-, and toxin-specific tolerance limits. Cyclic patterns of intake of a variety of foods reflect seemingly chaotic interactions among flavours, nutrients, and toxins interacting along continua.
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Botha, JA, SP Kirkman, JPY Arnould, AT Lombard, GJG Hofmeyr, MA Meÿer, PGH Kotze, and PA Pistorius. "Geographic variation in at-sea movements, habitat use and diving behaviour of female Cape fur seals." Marine Ecology Progress Series 649 (September 10, 2020): 201–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/meps13446.
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Knowledge of animal foraging behaviour has implications for management and conservation. While Cape fur seals Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus comprise a major proportion of the southern African marine predator biomass, little is known about their at-sea movements. We investigated foraging distribution, habitat use and diving behaviour for 35 adult female Cape fur seals from 3 breeding colonies experiencing contrasting oceanographic regimes. Animals from Black Rocks, the smallest and eastern-most colony, undertook shorter foraging trips and utilised shallower waters over the shelf. In comparison, animals from the larger west coast colonies, at Kleinsee and False Bay, travelled further and utilised deeper shelf and shelf-slope waters. However, across colonies, females typically preferred depths of <500 m and slopes of <5°. Kleinsee and False Bay seals selected sea surface temperatures within the range typically preferred by pelagic prey species such as round herring, sardine and anchovy (14-19°C). Black Rocks individuals showed bimodal preferences for colder (16°C) and warmer waters (>22°C). Dive behaviour was similar between Kleinsee and False Bay individuals (unavailable from Black Rocks), with both pelagic and benthic foraging evident. Diel patterns were apparent at both sites, as dive depth and benthic diving increased significantly during daylight hours, likely reflecting vertical movements of prey species. We provide the first assessment of Cape fur seal movement behaviour for the South African component of the population. Observed geographic differences likely reflect the availability of suitable habitat but may also indicate differences in foraging strategies and density-dependent effects throughout the range of this species.
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MacIntosh, Andrew J. J., Concepción L. Alados, and Michael A. Huffman. "Fractal analysis of behaviour in a wild primate: behavioural complexity in health and disease." Journal of The Royal Society Interface 8, no. 63 (March 23, 2011): 1497–509. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2011.0049.
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Parasitism and other stressors are ubiquitous in nature but their effects on animal behaviour can be difficult to identify. We investigated the effects of nematode parasitism and other indicators of physiological impairment on the sequential complexity of foraging and locomotion behaviour among wild Japanese macaques ( Macaca fuscata yakui ). We observed all sexually mature individuals ( n = 28) in one macaque study group between October 2007 and August 2008, and collected two faecal samples/month/individual ( n = 362) for parasitological examination. We used detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) to investigate long-range autocorrelation in separate, binary sequences of foraging ( n = 459) and locomotion ( n = 446) behaviour collected via focal sampling. All behavioural sequences exhibited long-range autocorrelation, and linear mixed-effects models suggest that increasing infection with the nodular worm Oesophagostomum aculeatum , clinically impaired health, reproductive activity, ageing and low dominance status were associated with reductions in the complexity of locomotion, and to a lesser extent foraging, behaviour. Furthermore, the sequential complexity of behaviour increased with environmental complexity. We argue that a reduction in complexity in animal behaviour characterizes individuals in impaired or ‘stressed’ states, and may have consequences if animals cannot cope with heterogeneity in their natural habitats.
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Keen-Rhinehart, Erin, Megan J. Dailey, and Timothy Bartness. "Physiological mechanisms for food-hoarding motivation in animals." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365, no. 1542 (March 27, 2010): 961–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0225.
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The study of ingestive behaviour has an extensive history, starting as early as 1918 when Wallace Craig, an animal behaviourist, coined the terms ‘appetitive’ and ‘consummatory’ for the two-part sequence of eating, drinking and sexual behaviours. Since then, most ingestive behaviour research has focused on the neuroendocrine control of food ingestion (consummatory behaviour). The quantity of food eaten, however, is also influenced by the drive both to acquire and to store food (appetitive behaviour). For example, hamster species have a natural proclivity to hoard food and preferentially alter appetitive ingestive behaviours in response to environmental changes and/or metabolic hormones and neuropeptides, whereas other species would instead primarily increase their food intake. Therefore, with the strong appetitive component to their ingestive behaviour that is relatively separate from their consummatory behaviour, they seem an ideal model for elucidating the neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying the control of food hoarding and foraging. This review focuses on the appetitive side of ingestive behaviour, in particular food hoarding, attempting to integrate what is known about the neuroendocrine mechanisms regulating this relatively poorly studied behaviour. An hypothesis is formed stating that the direction of ‘energy flux’ is a unifying factor for the control of food hoarding.
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Billard, Pauline, Alexandra K. Schnell, Nicola S. Clayton, and Christelle Jozet-Alves. "Cuttlefish show flexible and future-dependent foraging cognition." Biology Letters 16, no. 2 (February 2020): 20190743. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0743.
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Some animals optimize their foraging activity by learning and memorizing food availability, in terms of quantity and quality, and adapt their feeding behaviour accordingly. Here, we investigated whether cuttlefish flexibly adapt their foraging behaviour according to the availability of their preferred prey. In Experiment 1, cuttlefish switched from a selective to an opportunistic foraging strategy (or vice versa ) when the availability of their preferred prey at night was predictable versus unpredictable. In Experiment 2, cuttlefish exhibited day-to-day foraging flexibility, in response to experiencing changes in the proximate future (i.e. preferred prey available on alternate nights). In Experiment 1, the number of crabs eaten during the day decreased when shrimp (i.e. preferred food) were predictably available at night, while the consumption of crabs during the day was maintained when shrimp availability was unpredictable. Cuttlefish quickly shifted from one strategy to the other, when experimental conditions were reversed. In Experiment 2, cuttlefish only reduced their consumption of crabs during the daytime when shrimps were predictably available the following night. Their daytime foraging behaviour appeared dependent on shrimps' future availability. Overall, cuttlefish can adopt dynamic and flexible foraging behaviours including selective, opportunistic and future-dependent strategies, in response to changing foraging conditions.
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Villalba, J. J., F. D. Provenza, F. Catanese, and R. A. Distel. "Understanding and manipulating diet choice in grazing animals." Animal Production Science 55, no. 3 (2015): 261. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/an14449.
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Conventional models of foraging, such as optimal foraging theory, generally take the univariate approach to explain the decisions of consumers on the basis of the intrinsic properties of foods, including nutrient concentration and abundance. However, the food environment is inherently diverse and, as a consequence, foraging decisions are influenced by the interactions among multiple food components and the forager. Foraging behaviour is affected by the consumer’s past experiences with the biochemical context in which a food is ingested, including the kinds and amounts of nutrients and plant secondary compounds in a plant and its neighbours. In addition, past experiences with food have the potential to influence food preference and intake through a mechanism, namely, food hedonics, which is not entirely dependent on the classical homeostatic model of appetite control. Research on the impacts of experience with food context and its behavioural expression in natural settings should pioneer innovative management strategies aimed at modifying food intake and preference of herbivores to enhance their nutrition, health and welfare, as well as the health and integrity of the landscapes they inhabit.
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Su, Weixing, Lin Na, Fang Liu, Wei Liu, Muhammad Aqeel Ashraf, and Hanning Chen. "Artificial Plant Root System Growth for Distributed Optimization: Models and Emergent Behaviors." Open Life Sciences 11, no. 1 (January 1, 2016): 447–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/biol-2016-0059.
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AbstractPlant root foraging exhibits complex behaviors analogous to those of animals, including the adaptability to continuous changes in soil environments. In this work, we adapt the optimality principles in the study of plant root foraging behavior to create one possible bio-inspired optimization framework for solving complex engineering problems. This provides us with novel models of plant root foraging behavior and with new methods for global optimization. This framework is instantiated as a new search paradigm, which combines the root tip growth, branching, random walk, and death. We perform a comprehensive simulation to demonstrate that the proposed model accurately reflects the characteristics of natural plant root systems. In order to be able to climb the noise-filled gradients of nutrients in soil, the foraging behaviors of root systems are social and cooperative, and analogous to animal foraging behaviors.
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Friedlaender, Ari S., David W. Johnston, Reny B. Tyson, Amanda Kaltenberg, Jeremy A. Goldbogen, Alison K. Stimpert, Corrie Curtice, et al. "Multiple-stage decisions in a marine central-place forager." Royal Society Open Science 3, no. 5 (May 2016): 160043. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160043.
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Air-breathing marine animals face a complex set of physical challenges associated with diving that affect the decisions of how to optimize feeding. Baleen whales (Mysticeti) have evolved bulk-filter feeding mechanisms to efficiently feed on dense prey patches. Baleen whales are central place foragers where oxygen at the surface represents the central place and depth acts as the distance to prey. Although hypothesized that baleen whales will target the densest prey patches anywhere in the water column, how depth and density interact to influence foraging behaviour is poorly understood. We used multi-sensor archival tags and active acoustics to quantify Antarctic humpback whale foraging behaviour relative to prey. Our analyses reveal multi-stage foraging decisions driven by both krill depth and density. During daylight hours when whales did not feed, krill were found in deep high-density patches. As krill migrated vertically into larger and less dense patches near the surface, whales began to forage. During foraging bouts, we found that feeding rates (number of feeding lunges per hour) were greatest when prey was shallowest, and feeding rates decreased with increasing dive depth. This strategy is consistent with previous models of how air-breathing diving animals optimize foraging efficiency. Thus, humpback whales forage mainly when prey is more broadly distributed and shallower, presumably to minimize diving and searching costs and to increase feeding rates overall and thus foraging efficiency. Using direct measurements of feeding behaviour from animal-borne tags and prey availability from echosounders, our study demonstrates a multi-stage foraging process in a central place forager that we suggest acts to optimize overall efficiency by maximizing net energy gain over time. These data reveal a previously unrecognized level of complexity in predator–prey interactions and underscores the need to simultaneously measure prey distribution in marine central place forager studies.
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Schubert, Kristin A., Ate S. Boerema, Lobke M. Vaanholt, Sietse F. de Boer, Arjen M. Strijkstra, and Serge Daan. "Daily torpor in mice: high foraging costs trigger energy-saving hypothermia." Biology Letters 6, no. 1 (August 26, 2009): 132–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0569.
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Many animal species employ natural hypothermia in seasonal (hibernation) and daily (torpor) strategies to save energy. Facultative daily torpor is a typical response to fluctuations in food availability, but the relationship between environmental quality, foraging behaviour and torpor responses is poorly understood. We studied body temperature responses of outbred ICR (CD-1) mice exposed to different food reward schedules, simulating variation in habitat quality. Our main comparison was between female mice exposed to low foraging-cost environments and high-cost environments. As controls, we pair-fed a group of inactive animals (no-cost treatment) the same amount of pellets as high-cost animals. Mice faced with high foraging costs were more likely to employ torpor than mice exposed to low foraging costs, or no-cost controls (100% versus 40% and 33% of animals, respectively). While resting-phase temperature showed a non-significant decrease in high-cost animals, torpor was not associated with depressions in active-phase body temperature. These results demonstrate (i) that mice show daily torpor in response to poor foraging conditions; (ii) that torpor incidence is not attributable to food restriction alone; and (iii) that high levels of nocturnal activity do not preclude the use of daily torpor as an energy-saving strategy. The finding that daily torpor is not restricted to conditions of severe starvation puts torpor in mice in a more fundamental ecological context.
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Henderson, Robbie J., and Mark A. Elgar. "Foraging behaviour and the risk of predation in the black house spider, Badumna insignis (Desidae)." Australian Journal of Zoology 47, no. 1 (1999): 29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/zo98060.
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Many animals adjust their behaviour according to the presence or threat of predators. However, the foraging behaviour of sit-and-wait predators is typically thought to be inflexible to short-term changes in the environment. Here we investigate the foraging behaviour of the nocturnally active black house spider, Badumna insignis. Experiments in which different kinds of prey were introduced into the web during either the day or night indicated that the foraging success of Badumna is compromised by behaviours that reduce the risk of predation. During the day, spiders generally remain within the retreat and take longer to reach the prey, which may reduce their foraging success. In contrast, spiders sat exposed at the edge of the retreat at night, and from here could usually reach the prey before it escaped. The spiders were able to escape from a model predator more rapidly if they were at the edge of the retreat than if they were out on the web. These data suggest that the costs to Badumna of reduced fecundity through poor foraging efficiency may be outweighed by the benefits of reducing the risk of predation
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Gillingham, Michael P., and Fred L. Bunnell. "Effects of learning on food selection and searching behaviour of deer." Canadian Journal of Zoology 67, no. 1 (January 1, 1989): 24–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z89-005.
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A review of feeding habits in black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus Richardson) reveals considerable variation among animals, locations, and seasons. Since the processes affecting food selection are poorly understood, we explored the concept of optimal foraging as a means of predicting foraging behaviour of black-tailed deer. Food preference was initially determined for three foods under ad libitum conditions. We then studied the feeding behaviour of two deer using the same foods in a 0.5-ha enclosure and examined the effects of experience, density, and distribution of their preferred food on diet selection. When deer had to search for food, diet selection remained the same as ad libitum preference when preferred foods were abundant. Both animals became more efficient (intake per distance travelled) at finding preferred foods with increased experience in a particular food distribution. This was accomplished by repeating search paths that had been effective during previous trials. Consequently, performance was poor when the food distribution was changed. Under controlled conditions, memory of previous foraging events can play a role in food selection by deer. Description of a foraging bout as a static process ignoring its internal dynamics may be convenient but misleading.
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Forkman, Björn. "The Foraging Behaviour of Mongolian Gerbils: a Behavioural Need or a Need To Know?" Behaviour 133, no. 1-2 (1996): 129–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853996x00071.
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AbstractIn the present paper Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) were shown to prefer to forage from an unprofitable food source when it contained hidden food, but not when the food was clearly visible. Four experiments were performed, in each experiment the animal could forage from either a food source with easily accessible food or from a food source which required more work. In the first experiment the animal could choose between seeds with husks and those without, and in the second experiment between seeds glued to a stick and seeds in a bowl. In both these experiments the animals could see the food of both food sources. The animals chose to forage from the most profitable food source, i.e. the seeds without husks and the seeds in a bowl respectively. In the third experiment the animals could choose between eating seeds hidden under lids or seeds in a bowl, and finally in the fourth experiment they could forage for seeds on a camouflaging surface or on a surface where the seeds were clearly visible. In these last two experiments it was impossible to see the food in the unprofitable food sources without working for it. In these situations the animals choose to forage from the unprofitable food source, i.e. from underneath the lids and on the camouflaging surface. These results are in accordance with exploration being the driving force behind contrafreeloading (learned industrioussness). The results cannot be explained by classical optimal foraging theory.
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Bradshaw, Don, Xavier Bonnet, and Fabien Aubret. "Food versus risk: foraging decision in young Tiger snakes, Notechis scutatus." Amphibia-Reptilia 28, no. 2 (2007): 304–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853807780202396.
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AbstractForaging behaviour is influenced by an animal's level of hunger, and may reflect a trade-off between optimizing food acquisition and avoiding predation. Young tiger snakes were raised either on a high or low food diet and exposed to a predation threat while foraging. Under these circumstances, lower condition snakes (low food diet) were prone to take additional feeding/foraging risks: food was accepted at a much higher rate compared with the higher condition animals (high food diet) that were less inclined to risk feeding under a predation threat. This study provides the first direct example of predation risk-associated foraging decisions in snakes.
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Bateson, Melissa. "Recent advances in our understanding of risk-sensitive foraging preferences." Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 61, no. 4 (November 2002): 509–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/pns2002181.
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Many experiments have shown that foraging animals are sensitive to the riskiness, or variance, associated with alternative food sources. For example, when offered a choice of a constant feeding option that always offers three seeds, and a risky option that offers either no seeds or six seeds with equal probability, most animals tested will be either risk-averse or risk-prone, preferring either the fixed or variable option respectively. Whether animals are risk-averse or risk-prone appears to depend on a range of factors, including the energetic status of the forager, the type of variance associated with the feeding options and even the number of feeding options between which the animal is choosing. These behavioural phenomena have attracted much theoretical interest, and a range of different explanations have been suggested, some based on a consideration of the psychological mechanisms involved in decision making, and others on a consideration of the Darwinian fitness consequences of risk-averse or risk-prone behaviour for the forager. A brief review of the recent literature on risk-sensitive foraging will be presented, focusing on results from the two experimental systems with which I have been involved: wild rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) foraging on artificial flowers; European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) foraging in operant boxes in the laboratory. It will be argued that to understand the foraging decisions of animals account needs to be taken of both the psychological mechanisms underlying decision-making and the fitness consequences of different decisions for the forager.
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Robinson, Natasha M., Wade Blanchard, Christopher MacGregor, Rob Brewster, Nick Dexter, and David B. Lindenmayer. "Finding food in a novel environment: The diet of a reintroduced endangered meso-predator to mainland Australia, with notes on foraging behaviour." PLOS ONE 15, no. 12 (December 17, 2020): e0243937. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243937.
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Translocated captive-bred predators are less skilled at hunting than wild-born predators and more prone to starvation post-release. Foraging in an unfamiliar environment presents many further risks to translocated animals. Knowledge of the diet and foraging behaviour of translocated animals is therefore an important consideration of reintroductions. We investigated the diet of the endangered meso-predator, the eastern quoll Dasyurus viverrinus. We also opportunistically observed foraging behaviour, enabling us to examine risks associated with foraging. Sixty captive-bred eastern quolls were reintroduced to an unfenced reserve on mainland Australia (where introduced predators are managed) over a two year period (2018, 2019). Quolls were supplementary fed macropod meat but were also able to forage freely. Dietary analysis of scats (n = 56) revealed that quolls ate macropods, small mammals, birds, invertebrates, fish, reptiles and frogs, with some between-year differences in the frequency of different diet categories. We also observed quolls hunting live prey. Quolls utilised supplementary feeding stations, indicating that this may be an important strategy during the establishment phase. Our study demonstrated that, in a novel environment, captive-bred quolls were able to locate food and hunt live prey. However, foraging was not without risks; with the ingestion of toxic substances and foraging in dangerous environments found to be potentially harmful. Knowledge of the diet of reintroduced fauna in natural landscapes is important for understanding foraging behaviour and evaluating habitat suitability for future translocations and management.
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Malé, Pierre-Jean G., Kyle M. Turner, Manjima Doha, Ina Anreiter, Aaron M. Allen, Marla B. Sokolowski, and Megan E. Frederickson. "An ant–plant mutualism through the lens of cGMP-dependent kinase genes." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284, no. 1862 (September 13, 2017): 20170896. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0896.
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In plant–animal mutualisms, how an animal forages often determines how much benefit its plant partner receives. In many animals, foraging behaviour changes in response to foraging gene expression or activation of the cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) that foraging encodes. Here, we show that this highly conserved molecular mechanism affects the outcome of a plant–animal mutualism. We studied the two PKG genes of Allomerus octoarticulatus, an Amazonian ant that defends the ant–plant Cordia nodosa against herbivores. Some ant colonies are better ‘bodyguards’ than others. Working in the field in Peru, we found that colonies fed with a PKG activator recruited more workers to attack herbivores than control colonies. This resulted in less herbivore damage. PKG gene expression in ant workers correlated with whether an ant colony discovered an herbivore and how much damage herbivores inflicted on leaves in a complex way; natural variation in expression levels of the two genes had significant interaction effects on ant behaviour and herbivory. Our results suggest a molecular basis for ant protection of plants in this mutualism.
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Provenza, F. D., P. Gregorini, and P. C. F. Carvalho. "Synthesis: foraging decisions link plants, herbivores and human beings." Animal Production Science 55, no. 3 (2015): 411. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/an14679.
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Herbivores make decisions about where to forage and what combinations and sequences of foods to eat, integrating influences that span generations, with choices manifest daily within a lifetime. These influences begin in utero and early in life; they emerge daily from interactions among internal needs and contexts unique to biophysical and social environments; and they link the cells of plants with the palates of herbivores and humans. This synthesis summarises papers in the special issue of Animal Production Science that explore emerging understanding of these dynamics, and suggests implications for future research that can help people manage livestock for the benefit of landscapes and people by addressing (1) how primary and secondary compounds in plants interact physiologically with cells and organs in animals to influence food selection, (2) temporal and spatial patterns of foraging behaviours that emerge from these interactions in the form of meal dynamics across landscapes, (3) ways humans can manage foraging behaviours and the dynamics of meals for ecological, economic and social benefits, and (4) models of foraging behaviour that integrate the aforementioned influences.
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Dailey, Megan J., and Timothy J. Bartness. "Appetitive and consummatory ingestive behaviors stimulated by PVH and perifornical area NPY injections." American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 296, no. 4 (April 2009): R877—R892. http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/ajpregu.90568.2008.
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Food is acquired (obtained by foraging) and frequently stored (hoarded) across animal taxa, including humans, but the physiological mechanisms underlying these behaviors are virtually unknown. We found that peptides that stimulate food intake in rats stimulate food foraging and/or hoarding more than intake in Siberian hamsters. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a potent orexigenic peptide that increases food foraging and hoarding (appetitive behavior) and food intake (consummatory behavior). Given that NPY injections into the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVH) or perifornical area (PFA) increase food intake by rats, it is possible that these injections may stimulate food foraging or hoarding by Siberian hamsters. We also tested whether antagonism of the NPY Y1 receptor (Y1-R), the agonism of which stimulates hoarding, would inhibit post-food-deprivation increases in foraging and hoarding. We injected one of three doses of NPY or vehicle into the PVH or PFA of animals housed in a simulated foraging-hoarding housing system and measured these behaviors at 1, 2, 4, and 24 h. A subset of animals was subsequently food deprived and then given PVH or PFA Y1-R antagonist microinjections before they were refed. NPY PVH microinjections decreased foraging but increased hoarding and food intake, whereas NPY PFA microinjections increased all three behaviors, but the greatest increase was in hoarding. Y1-R antagonist inhibited post-food-deprivation increases in hoarding when injected into the PVH and PFA and inhibited foraging when injected into the PFA. These results support the view that NPY is involved in appetitive and consummatory ingestive behaviors, but each may be controlled by different brain areas and/or NPY receptor subtypes.
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Northrup, Joseph M., Alexandra Avrin, Charles R. Anderson, Emma Brown, and George Wittemyer. "On-animal acoustic monitoring provides insight to ungulate foraging behavior." Journal of Mammalogy 100, no. 5 (August 28, 2019): 1479–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz124.
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Abstract Foraging behavior underpins many ecological processes; however, robust assessments of this behavior for free-ranging animals are rare due to limitations to direct observations. We leveraged acoustic monitoring and GPS tracking to assess the factors influencing foraging behavior of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). We deployed custom-built acoustic collars with GPS radiocollars on mule deer to measure location-specific foraging. We quantified individual bites and steps taken by deer, and quantified two metrics of foraging behavior: the number of bites taken per step and the number of bites taken per unit time, which relate to foraging intensity and efficiency. We fit statistical models to these metrics to examine the individual, environmental, and anthropogenic factors influencing foraging. Deer in poorer body condition took more bites per step and per minute and foraged for longer irrespective of landscape properties. Other patterns varied seasonally with major changes in deer condition. In December, when deer were in better condition, they took fewer bites per step and more bites per minute. Deer also foraged more intensely and efficiently in areas of greater forage availability and greater movement costs. During March, when deer were in poorer condition, foraging was not influenced by landscape features. Anthropogenic factors weakly structured foraging behavior in December with no relationship in March. Most research on animal foraging is interpreted under the framework of optimal foraging theory. Departures from predictions developed under this framework provide insight to unrecognized factors influencing the evolution of foraging. Our results only conformed to our predictions when deer were in better condition and ecological conditions were declining, suggesting foraging strategies were state-dependent. These results advance our understanding of foraging patterns in wild animals and highlight novel observational approaches for studying animal behavior.
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Watanabe, Yuuki Y., Motohiro Ito, and Akinori Takahashi. "Testing optimal foraging theory in a penguin–krill system." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281, no. 1779 (March 22, 2014): 20132376. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2376.
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Food is heterogeneously distributed in nature, and understanding how animals search for and exploit food patches is a fundamental challenge in ecology. The classic marginal value theorem (MVT) formulates optimal patch residence time in response to patch quality. The MVT was generally proved in controlled animal experiments; however, owing to the technical difficulties in recording foraging behaviour in the wild, it has been inadequately examined in natural predator–prey systems, especially those in the three-dimensional marine environment. Using animal-borne accelerometers and video cameras, we collected a rare dataset in which the behaviour of a marine predator (penguin) was recorded simultaneously with the capture timings of mobile, patchily distributed prey (krill). We provide qualitative support for the MVT by showing that (i) krill capture rate diminished with time in each dive, as assumed in the MVT, and (ii) dive duration (or patch residence time, controlled for dive depth) increased with short-term, dive-scale krill capture rate, but decreased with long-term, bout-scale krill capture rate, as predicted from the MVT. Our results demonstrate that a single environmental factor (i.e. patch quality) can have opposite effects on animal behaviour depending on the time scale, emphasizing the importance of multi-scale approaches in understanding complex foraging strategies.
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Santini, G., P. Della Santina, and G. Chelazzi. "A Motographic Analysis of Foraging Behaviour in Intertidal Chitons (Acanthopleura Spp.)." Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 71, no. 4 (November 1991): 759–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0025315400053431.
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The behaviour of two intertidal chitons (Mollusca: Polyplacophora) from the western Indian Ocean (Acanthopleura gemmata and A. brevispinosa) and one from the Caribbean Sea (A. granulata) were analyzed in order to assess the spatial and temporal organization of their foraging activity. Individual paths were recorded in the field using a motographic method based on LED-tracking and the speed variation during each excursion used to reveal the places where the animals slowed down or stopped for the purpose of grazing. Foraging segments of each trajectory were selected according to a threshold speed which was individually calibrated. The three species of Acanthopleura exhibited graded foraging strategies of different spatial complexity. Acanthopleura gemmata focused its foraging on a few large feeding sites well separated from its permanent home. Acanthopleura brevispinosa exploited more subdivided feeding grounds not distinctly separated from its rest area. Acanthopleura granulata spreads its grazing activity over many small segments, throughout each excursion. Due to different tidal and diel constraints on their activity the three species allocated different absolute time to foraging, but the fraction of time spent foraging relative to the total excursion was similar in each.
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Giles, Sarah L., Pat Harris, Sean A. Rands, and Christine J. Nicol. "Foraging efficiency, social status and body condition in group-living horses and ponies." PeerJ 8 (November 9, 2020): e10305. http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10305.
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Individual animals experience different costs and benefits associated with group living, which may impact on their foraging efficiency in ways not yet well specified. This study investigated associations between social dominance, body condition and interruptions to foraging behaviour in a cross-sectional study of 116 domestic horses and ponies, kept in 20 discrete herds. Social dominance was measured for each individual alongside observations of winter foraging behaviour. During bouts of foraging, the duration, frequency and category (vigilance, movement, social displacements given and received, scratching and startle responses) of interruptions were recorded, with total interruption time taken as a proxy measure of foraging efficiency. Total foraging time was not influenced by body condition or social dominance. Body condition was associated with social dominance, but more strongly associated with foraging efficiency. Specifically, lower body condition was associated with greater vigilance. This demonstrates that factors other than social dominance can result in stable differences in winter body condition.
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Wolf, Shelby, and Daniel Houlihan. "Behavioral Perspectives on Risk Prone Behavior: Why Do People Take Risks?" International Journal of Psychological Studies 10, no. 2 (May 11, 2018): 71. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijps.v10n2p71.
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Utilizing the principles and concepts of behavioral economics and operant psychology, researchers in both fields initiated the creation of the optimal foraging theory. This theory describes foraging behaviors mostly within animals other than humans. However, within recent empirical studies, optimal foraging theory has been modified to explain risky choices and decision-making processes within the context of risk-sensitive foraging theory for both animals and humans alike. Although most individuals belonging to the homo sapiensspecies would not like to admit that their behavior is very animalistic in nature, there is a great deal of veracity behind this idea, ranging from explaining gambling behavior to addictive behaviors to even homicide. Risk prone behavior describes behavior elicited for the potential gain of rewards under certain conditions, usually competitive in nature. The purpose of the current paper is to shed some light on this topic and how it relates to the most primitive of behaviors exhibited by human beings.
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Hussey, Nigel E., Joseph D. DiBattista, Jonathan W. Moore, Eric J. Ward, Aaron T. Fisk, Steven Kessel, Tristan L. Guttridge, et al. "Risky business for a juvenile marine predator? Testing the influence of foraging strategies on size and growth rate under natural conditions." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284, no. 1852 (April 5, 2017): 20170166. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0166.
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Mechanisms driving selection of body size and growth rate in wild marine vertebrates are poorly understood, thus limiting knowledge of their fitness costs at ecological, physiological and genetic scales. Here, we indirectly tested whether selection for size-related traits of juvenile sharks that inhabit a nursery hosting two dichotomous habitats, protected mangroves (low predation risk) and exposed seagrass beds (high predation risk), is influenced by their foraging behaviour. Juvenile sharks displayed a continuum of foraging strategies between mangrove and seagrass areas, with some individuals preferentially feeding in one habitat over another. Foraging habitat was correlated with growth rate, whereby slower growing, smaller individuals fed predominantly in sheltered mangroves, whereas larger, faster growing animals fed over exposed seagrass. Concomitantly, tracked juveniles undertook variable movement behaviours across both the low and high predation risk habitat. These data provide supporting evidence for the hypothesis that directional selection favouring smaller size and slower growth rate, both heritable traits in this shark population, may be driven by variability in foraging behaviour and predation risk. Such evolutionary pathways may be critical to adaptation within predator-driven marine ecosystems.
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Cullen, Jeffrey L., and Gary D. Grossman. "Aggressive interactions affect foraging and use of space in a drift foraging salmonid, Salvelinus malma (Salmoniformes: Salmonidae)." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 187, no. 3 (August 13, 2019): 774–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz050.
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Abstract Although intraspecific interactions likely affect habitat choice and foraging behaviour in animals, our knowledge regarding how these factors interact is frequently limited to either lab or field studies, but not both. We observed pairs of dominant and subordinate drift-foraging Dolly Varden char (Salvelinus malma) in an Alaskan stream, and quantified intraspecific interactions and foraging behaviour. Dominant individuals had higher foraging rates, occupied slower holding velocities and were displaced shorter distances during bouts compared to subordinate individuals. Individuals initiated bouts more frequently from the downstream position, than from lateral or upstream positions. Dominant individuals were more likely to occupy the upstream position after a bout than subordinates, which ensures that dominants have the first opportunity to capture drifting prey.
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Barclay, R. M. R., and D. S. Jacobs. "Differences in the foraging behaviour of male and female Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus)." Canadian Journal of Zoology 89, no. 6 (June 2011): 466–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z11-013.
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Male and female animals frequently have different foraging behaviours owing to differences in body size or nutritional demand, or to intraspecific competition. We studied foraging by Egyptian fruit bats ( Rousettus aegyptiacus (E. Geoffroy, 1810)) in Cape Town, South Africa, to test predictions based on differences in nutritional demand during reproduction. Using radiotelemetry, we compared emergence, return, and foraging times of males and females during pregnancy and lactation. We also determined home-range size, habitat use, and use of figs (genus Ficus L.), which are a potential source of calcium for lactating females. During the pregnancy period, males left their roost later than females and were away from the roost for shorter periods. There were no differences in timing of foraging during lactation. Females foraged in native forest more than males did, but home-range size did not differ. There was no evidence that females fed on figs more than males did. Differences in foraging behaviour were not as predicted based on nutritional and energetic differences. The small population may have meant that there was little competition for food, and figs may have provided a profitable source of energy for both males and females. Differences in the timing of foraging are best explained by the need for males to defend roosting sites.
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Sumpter, D. J. T. "The principles of collective animal behaviour." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 361, no. 1465 (November 28, 2005): 5–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2005.1733.
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In recent years, the concept of self-organization has been used to understand collective behaviour of animals. The central tenet of self-organization is that simple repeated interactions between individuals can produce complex adaptive patterns at the level of the group. Inspiration comes from patterns seen in physical systems, such as spiralling chemical waves, which arise without complexity at the level of the individual units of which the system is composed. The suggestion is that biological structures such as termite mounds, ant trail networks and even human crowds can be explained in terms of repeated interactions between the animals and their environment, without invoking individual complexity. Here, I review cases in which the self-organization approach has been successful in explaining collective behaviour of animal groups and societies. Ant pheromone trail networks, aggregation of cockroaches, the applause of opera audiences and the migration of fish schools have all been accurately described in terms of individuals following simple sets of rules. Unlike the simple units composing physical systems, however, animals are themselves complex entities, and other examples of collective behaviour, such as honey bee foraging with its myriad of dance signals and behavioural cues, cannot be fully understood in terms of simple individuals alone. I argue that the key to understanding collective behaviour lies in identifying the principles of the behavioural algorithms followed by individual animals and of how information flows between the animals. These principles, such as positive feedback, response thresholds and individual integrity, are repeatedly observed in very different animal societies. The future of collective behaviour research lies in classifying these principles, establishing the properties they produce at a group level and asking why they have evolved in so many different and distinct natural systems. Ultimately, this research could inform not only our understanding of animal societies, but also the principles by which we organize our own society.
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Hill, Catherine M. "Crop Foraging, Crop Losses, and Crop Raiding." Annual Review of Anthropology 47, no. 1 (October 21, 2018): 377–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102317-050022.
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Crop foraging or crop raiding concerns wildlife foraging and farmers’ reactions and responses to it. To understand crop foraging and its value to wildlife or its implications for humans requires a cross-disciplinary approach that considers the behavior and ecology of wild animals engaging in this behavior; the types and levels of competition for resources between people and wildlife; people's perceptions of and attitudes toward wildlife, including animals that forage on crops; and discourse about animals and their behaviors and how these discourses can be used for expressing dissent and distress about other social conflicts. So, to understand and respond to conflicts about crop damage, we need to look beyond what people lose, i.e., crop loss and economic equivalence, and focus more on what people say about wildlife and why they say it.
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Patel, Rickesh N., and Thomas W. Cronin. "Path integration error and adaptable search behaviors in a mantis shrimp." Journal of Experimental Biology 223, no. 14 (June 25, 2020): jeb224618. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.224618.
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ABSTRACTMantis shrimp of the species Neogonodactylus oerstedii occupy small burrows in shallow waters throughout the Caribbean. These animals use path integration, a vector-based navigation strategy, to return to their homes while foraging. Here, we report that path integration in N. oerstedii is prone to error accumulated during outward foraging paths and we describe the search behavior that N. oerstedii employs after it fails to locate its home following the route provided by its path integrator. This search behavior forms continuously expanding, non-oriented loops that are centered near the point of search initiation. The radius of this search is scaled to the animal's positional uncertainty during path integration, improving the effectiveness of the search. The search behaviors exhibited by N. oerstedii bear a striking resemblance to search behaviors in other animals, offering potential avenues for the comparative examination of search behaviors and how they are optimized in disparate taxa.
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Bauer, S. A., D. L. Pearl, K. E. Leslie, J. Fournier, and P. V. Turner. "Causes of obesity in captive cynomolgus macaques: influence of body condition, social and management factors on behaviour around feeding." Laboratory Animals 46, no. 3 (July 2012): 193–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1258/la.2012.011120.
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Similar to other primate species, captive cynomolgus macaques ( Macaca fascicularis) are prone to becoming overweight. The relationship between body condition and feeding behaviour in group-housed animals has not been reported. This study evaluated the effect of daily feeding routines on behaviour patterns in cynomolgus macaques to determine whether overweight macaques displayed different behaviours and activity levels. In this prospective observational study, 16 macaques ( m = 4, f = 12) from four separate troops ( n = 4 per troop) were selected from a colony of 165 animals. Observational data were collected over six months during morning and afternoon feedings by scan sampling. Behaviours of interest included foraging, eating, aggressive and positive social interactions, inactivity and physical activities. Multivariable mixed logistic regression modelling was used for data analysis. Results indicated that overweight animals were more likely to be inactive, dominant animals had increased probabilities of eating compared with non-dominants, and aggressive behaviours were more likely to occur in the morning and before feeding, suggesting feeding anticipation. Positive social interaction before feeding was seen and may be a strategy used to avoid aggressive encounters around food resources. Individual animal caregivers had an unintentional impact on behaviour, as decreased eating and an increase in inactivity were noted when certain individuals fed animals. These findings illustrate the complexities of feeding group-housed cynomolgus macaques to avoid overweight body condition. Feeding routines may require more care and attention to distribute food in a way that ensures equitable food intake among troop animals, while not disturbing group cohesion.
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van der Waal, C. "Kudu foraging behaviour: influenced by animal density?" African Journal of Range & Forage Science 22, no. 1 (April 2005): 11–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.2989/10220110509485857.
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Visser, Fleur, Patrick J. O. Miller, Ricardo N. Antunes, Machiel G. Oudejans, Monique L. Mackenzie, Kagari Aoki, Frans-Peter A. Lam, Petter H. Kvadsheim, Jef Huisman, and Peter L. Tyack. "The social context of individual foraging behaviour in long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas)." Behaviour 151, no. 10 (2014): 1453–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1568539x-00003195.
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Long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) are highly social cetaceans that live in matrilineal groups and acquire their prey during deep foraging dives. We tagged individual pilot whales to record their diving behaviour. To describe the social context of this individual behaviour, the tag data were matched with surface observations at the group level using a novel protocol. The protocol comprised two key components: a dynamic definition of the group centred around the tagged individual, and a set of behavioural parameters quantifying visually observable characteristics of the group. Our results revealed that the diving behaviour of tagged individuals was associated with distinct group-level behaviour at the water’s surface. During foraging, groups broke up into smaller and more widely spaced units with a higher degree of milling behaviour. These data formed the basis for a classification model, using random forest decision trees, which accurately distinguished between bouts of shallow diving and bouts of deep foraging dives based on group behaviour observed at the surface. The results also indicated that members of a group to a large degree synchronised the timing of their foraging periods. This was confirmed by pairs of tagged individuals that nearly always synchronized their diving bouts. Hence, our study illustrates that integration of individual-level and group-level observations can shed new light on the social context of the individual foraging behaviour of animals living in groups.
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Kilpatrick, Zachary P., Jacob D. Davidson, and Ahmed El Hady. "Uncertainty drives deviations in normative foraging decision strategies." Journal of The Royal Society Interface 18, no. 180 (July 2021): 20210337. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2021.0337.
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Nearly all animals forage to acquire energy for survival through efficient search and resource harvesting. Patch exploitation is a canonical foraging behaviour, but there is a need for more tractable and understandable mathematical models describing how foragers deal with uncertainty. To provide such a treatment, we develop a normative theory of patch foraging decisions, proposing mechanisms by which foraging behaviours emerge in the face of uncertainty. Our model foragers statistically and sequentially infer patch resource yields using Bayesian updating based on their resource encounter history. A decision to leave a patch is triggered when the certainty of the patch type or the estimated yield of the patch falls below a threshold. The time scale over which uncertainty in resource availability persists strongly impacts behavioural variables like patch residence times and decision rules determining patch departures. When patch depletion is slow, as in habitat selection, departures are characterized by a reduction of uncertainty, suggesting that the forager resides in a low-yielding patch. Uncertainty leads patch-exploiting foragers to overharvest (underharvest) patches with initially low (high) resource yields in comparison with predictions of the marginal value theorem. These results extend optimal foraging theory and motivate a variety of behavioural experiments investigating patch foraging behaviour.
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Ihle, Mutti, Kaftanoglu, and Amdam. "Insulin Receptor Substrate Gene Knockdown Accelerates Behavioural Maturation and Shortens Lifespan in Honeybee Workers." Insects 10, no. 11 (November 5, 2019): 390. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects10110390.
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In animals, dietary restriction or suppression of genes involved in nutrient sensing tends to increase lifespan. In contrast, food restriction in honeybees (Apis mellifera) shortens lifespan by accelerating a behavioural maturation program that culminates in leaving the nest as a forager. Foraging is metabolically demanding and risky, and foragers experience increased rates of aging and mortality. Food-deprived worker bees forage at younger ages and are expected to live shorter lives. We tested whether suppression of a molecular nutrient sensing pathway is sufficient to accelerate the behavioural transition to foraging and shorten worker life. To achieve this, we reduced expression of the insulin receptor substrate (irs) gene via RNA interference in two selected lines of honeybees used to control for behavioural and genetic variation. irs encodes a membrane-associated protein in the insulin/insulin-like signalling (IIS) pathway that is central to nutrient sensing in animals. We measured foraging onset and lifespan and found that suppression of irs reduced worker bee lifespan in both genotypes, and that this effect was largely driven by an earlier onset of foraging behaviour in a genotype-conditional manner. Our results provide the first direct evidence that an IIS pathway gene influences behavioural maturation and lifespan in honeybees and highlight the importance of considering social environments and behaviours when investigating the regulation of aging and lifespan in social animals.
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Lynch, Emily C., Caley A. Johnson, Robert F. Lynch, Jessica M. Rothman, Anthony Di Fiore, and Ryne A. Palombit. "Mothers and fathers improve immature baboon foraging success." Behaviour 157, no. 5 (May 7, 2020): 387–414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1568539x-bja10006.
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Abstract For many animal species, immatures are less efficient foragers than their adult counterparts and must use multiple strategies to fulfill their nutritional needs through effective learning of social and feeding behaviour. To overcome these challenges, young animals are predicted to rely on adult relatives to gain foraging competency, partly because kin are more likely to tolerate the proximity of immatures, upon which socially facilitated learning of food selection and foraging skills depends. While evidence suggests that mothers improve the foraging success of their offspring, little is known about the potential contribution of fathers to the development of feeding skills. Here, we investigate the influence of both mothers and fathers on the foraging behaviour of young olive baboons (Papio anubis) in Laikipia, Kenya. Behavioural data were gathered via focal animal sampling and genetic relatedness was determined by microsatellite genotyping of non-invasively collected faecal DNA samples. We also conducted analyses to assess the nutritional and energetic content of staple foods consumed by the baboons. We found that, compared to when feeding near unrelated adults or alone, immatures were more likely to consume high energy foods when they were near their mothers and preliminary results suggest access to similar effects when near fathers. These data advance well-documented maternal influences on the foraging competence of offspring in a matrilocal society, and additionally suggest the importance (and possible long-term fitness benefits) of associations between offspring and their fathers.
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Rutter, SM, RA Champion, and PD Penning. "Automatic recording of various aspects of foraging behaviour." Annales de Zootechnie 45, Suppl. 1 (1996): 85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/animres:19960618.
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Prache, Sophie, Iain J. Gordon, and Andrew J. Rook. "Foraging behaviour and diet selection in domestic herbivores." Annales de Zootechnie 47, no. 5-6 (1998): 335–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/animres:19980502.
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Kavanagh, RP. "Forest Phenology and Its Effect on Foraging Behavior and Selection of Habitat by the Yellow-Bellied Glider, Petaurus-Australis Shaw." Wildlife Research 14, no. 4 (1987): 371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/wr9870371.
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The foraging behaviour of the yellow-bellied glider was observed for more than 3 years in south-eastern New South Wales. The use of different substrates by foraging gliders followed an annual cycle which was correlated with the phenological pattern in the forest. Flowering and bark shedding on eucalypts were the characters of tree phenology most useful for predicting the behaviour of foraging animals. Gliders concentrated their foraging efforts on ephemeral food resources, particularly those obtained from under loose bark; this led to a seasonal pattern in the use of tree species and habitats in the study area. The preferred habitat of P. australis is likely to be characterised by a mosaic of tree-species associations, including those which flower in winter. Smooth-barked eucalypts are important because of the diversity of foraging substrates, and hence food resources, which they provide. The patchy distribution of these gliders may be explained by differences in floristic diversity and the complexity of the habitat mosaic.
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Adachi, Taiki, Jennifer L. Maresh, Patrick W. Robinson, Sarah H. Peterson, Daniel P. Costa, Yasuhiko Naito, Yuuki Y. Watanabe, and Akinori Takahashi. "The foraging benefits of being fat in a highly migratory marine mammal." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281, no. 1797 (December 22, 2014): 20142120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2120.
Full textAbstract:
Foraging theory predicts that breath-hold divers adjust the time spent foraging at depth relative to the energetic cost of swimming, which varies with buoyancy (body density). However, the buoyancy of diving animals varies as a function of their body condition, and the effects of these changes on swimming costs and foraging behaviour have been poorly examined. A novel animal-borne accelerometer was developed that recorded the number of flipper strokes, which allowed us to monitor the number of strokes per metre swam (hereafter, referred to as strokes-per-metre) by female northern elephant seals over their months-long, oceanic foraging migrations. As negatively buoyant seals increased their fat stores and buoyancy, the strokes-per-metre increased slightly in the buoyancy-aided direction (descending), but decreased significantly in the buoyancy-hindered direction (ascending), with associated changes in swim speed and gliding duration. Overall, the round-trip strokes-per-metre decreased and reached a minimum value when seals achieved neutral buoyancy. Consistent with foraging theory, seals stayed longer at foraging depths when their round-trip strokes-per-metre was less. Therefore, neutrally buoyant divers gained an energetic advantage via reduced swimming costs, which resulted in an increase in time spent foraging at depth, suggesting a foraging benefit of being fat.